Central rock rat

Zyzomys pedunculatus

Blamed on cats

IUCN Status: Critically Endangered

EPBC Threat Rating: Very high

IUCN Claim: “Recent evidence has shown predation by feral cats’”

Studies in support

Cats hunt central rock rats (McDonald et al. 2014).

Studies not in support

No studies

Is the threat claim evidence-based?

There are no studies linking cats to central rock rat populations.

Evidence linking Zyzomys pedunculatus to cats. Systematic review of evidence for an association between Zyzomys pedunculatus and cats. Positive studies are in support of the hypothesis that cats contribute to the decline of Zyzomys pedunculatus, negative studies are not in support. Predation studies include studies documenting hunting or scavenging; baiting studies are associations between poison baiting and threatened mammal abundance where information on predator abundance is not provided; population studies are associations between threatened mammal and predator abundance.
Evidence linking Zyzomys pedunculatus to cats. Systematic review of evidence for an association between Zyzomys pedunculatus and cats. Positive studies are in support of the hypothesis that cats contribute to the decline of Zyzomys pedunculatus, negative studies are not in support. Predation studies include studies documenting hunting or scavenging; baiting studies are associations between poison baiting and threatened mammal abundance where information on predator abundance is not provided; population studies are associations between threatened mammal and predator abundance.

References

McDonald, Peter J., et al. “A new population of the critically endangered central rock-rat (Zyzomys pedunculatus) discovered in the Northern Territory.” Australian Mammalogy 37.1 (2014): 97-100.

Wallach et al. 2023 In Submission